A Child By the Man She Always Wanted
by WizMonCruWil
Summary: Set in Season 5, Episode 3. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Together at Last

**Chapter 1: Together at Last**

Lorelai Gilmore's hands scrambled for purchase along Luke Danes' rippling back muscles. He made love to her like someone who had waited years to do so. Yet there was also a tender side to him. Even so, the bed creaked and swayed.

Lorelai framed Luke's face tenderly. "Don't hold back," she begged.

"Ohh..." Luke moaned and thrust faster into her. At last, he let out an almighty groan and spilled his seed inside of her. Rolling off of Lorelai, he allowed the woman of his dreams to snuggle into his side, resting her head on his bare chest.

"I can't believe you kept that horoscope," Lorelai sighed.

"You're just lucky I never clean out my wallet," Luke deadpanned.

"You can't take it back now. You've exposed yourself. You've been pining for me."

Luke burst out laughing, even if her words cut him to the quick. For deep down, it was true. He had. Even as he now denied it. "I have not been pining."

"I'm your Eva Gardener," Lorelai identified.

"God Help Me." He sighed long and low. "OK. Let's get something out of the way right now." He reached across the expanse of the bed to his bedside table and plucked a notebook from the top.

"What? What are you doing?"

Luke readied his pen and began to write. "Tell me... what CDs to get so I don't have to hear about it."

Lorelai gawked at him in mock outrage. "Seriously?"

"And skip any 80s groups where the guys dressed up like pirates. I draw the line at pirates," Luke plowed right along.

Lorelai gave a squeal of happiness. "This has been a great first date."

"Only took us eight years to get here."

The couple gently kissed once. Then again.

"Ok, so: U2, right?"

"Yup. Bono is a must, and Blondie," Lorelai supplied. "And... oooh - Sparks! Especially the new one. Plus Bowie."

Luke stopped scribbling. "Ah - OK, I know he dressed up like a pirate."

"Spaceman."

"Spaceman I can deal with," Luke conceded.

* * *

The alarm clock was shrill the next morning as the sun streamed into the loft above the Diner. Lorelai moaned at the sound, and Luke rolled over.

"Sorry, forgot to turn the alarm off," he grumbled, blindly reaching for it.

"Bad alarm, bad alarm," Lorelai woozily chided.

Lorelai snuggled back into Luke's embrace. "What time is it?"

"Early."

"Hate early. Must kill early," Lorelai moaned as Luke kissed her temple. "OK. We gotta get up."

Neither of them moved. "Why?" Luke harrumphed.

"Work. Inn. Buy shoes." Lorelai continued to speak with monosyllabic phrases. She sighed. "Oh my god, I can't move. I need coffee."

"I don't have coffee up here; it's all downstairs," Luke broke to her.

Lorelai whimpered in frustration. "Downstairs..." She planted kisses along his bare chest before grudgingly rising from the bed they had shared. Wrapping herself in one of Luke's extra long flannels she proceeded to head downstairs.

"Where are you going?" Luke whined to her retreating back.

Too late. Lorelai pushed past the curtain concealing the stairs to the loft...

Only to find the place was open and bustling. Kirk, Gypsy and many more of her neighbors raised their eyes to her. Plastering a nervous grin on her face, Lorelai stole back upstairs.

"Well, I think people are going to know," she announced as nonchalantly as she could to mask her mortification.

"What?" Luke slurred, sitting up. "What are you talking about? What?..." He took in her appearance for the first time. "Why are you wearing my shirt?"

"I put it on to go get coffee."

"Downstairs?"

"Well, you don't keep it upstairs."

"The Diner's open!"

Lorelai mock-gasped. "You're kidding!"

"You walked into the Diner like _that_?"

"Well, I didn't think the Diner could open without you!" Lorelai cried.

Luke groaned. "I had Caesar open..."

"Well, he did, with a... floor show," Lorelai gestured to herself.

"OK, so... maybe... nobody noticed," Luke half-hoped.

"Luke, look at me!" Lorelai balked.

"Ok, but... you were crazy outfits all the time."

"They usually include pants."

"Ok, so they know. So what? I mean, they're gonna find out eventually, right?"

"Right," Lorelai shrugged. "So we'll hear about it for a few days."

"A few weeks," Luke corrected.

"Six months of hearing about it, but then it will die down," Lorelai tried to sound optimistic.

"We'll get used to it."

"Everything will go back to normal. Ok. Well. They know. It's out."

"It's out," Luke agreed.

A pause. And then Luke asked: "Where's your coffee?"

Lorelai just let him do the deducing for himself. Luke bravely swung out of bed. "I'm getting coffee."


	2. Chapter 2: A Danes Baby

**Chapter 2: A Danes Baby**

Lorelai had been throwing up almost ever since she and Luke had first made love in his loft. When the urping into the toilet refused to abate, she began to worry. When she missed her period, she panicked.

Picking up a pregnancy test at Dosse's Market, Lorelai had locked herself in the bathroom and prepared the test. A few minutes later, she checked. It tested positive.

At first, Lorelai had burst into tears. She was pregnant out of wedlock again! She called Rory with the news, expecting some solace. But instead, Rory was positively thrilled.

"It's Luke's baby?! Oh My God, you're together! Finally! I'm so happy for you, Mom!" Rory had squealed.

After hanging up the phone, Lorelai thought about her current predicament. And the more she thought about it, the more she went from feeling sad to feeling happy. She ran her hands over her stomach, which she knew housed a baby within. Sired by a man who had waited patiently for her, had pined for her (despite his protestations to the contrary). And Luke had always been there for her, never once pressured her for her love. And he had always been fiercely protective and devoted to Rory. He deserved to be a parent himself, and if she was to be the vehicle through which he gained that chance, well then Lorelai considered it an honor.

Now only one order of business remained: she had to tell him.

* * *

None of the patrons even blinked when they saw Lorelai rush into the Diner and slip up the back stairs without knocking or checking behind the thin curtain. Upon seeing Luke stepping out of his apartment, she dragged him back inside and threw her arms around him.

Luke chuckled. "What's with the energetic greeting? Not that I mind. Had your coffee?"

"Nope," Lorelai shook her head. "I'm going to need to abstain."

Luke stared. "Abstain from coffee? You?"

"I'm pregnant," Lorelai burst out. "And it's yours."

Luke gaped at her. Then the next moment, he was taking her in his arms and kissing the breath out of her body. Kissing her again and again. As he did so, his hands ghosted over Lorelai's midsection. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Wait and see," Lorelai giggled against his lips. She draped her arms across his neck. "But which do you want?"

Luke lifted her off her feet and carried her grandly to the bed. "I want a girl," he whispered. "A girl as beautiful as you and Rory. But I won't mind either way."

* * *

That night, wrapped in Luke's arms, Lorelai dreamed of them outside the Diner. She was holding a pink bundle in her arms, over a stroller, as Luke looked on proudly. Snuggling closer to Luke in her sleep, Lorelai let the happy dream go where it might, content that it would soon be a reality...


	3. Chapter 3: He Gets Robbed

**Chapter 3: He Gets Robbed**

The months passed. Lorelai's stomach grew ever rounder and soon the whole of Stars Hollow knew that the couple they had been shipping for years were finally going to have a baby together. Luke asked Lorelai several times if she wanted to get married, for the child's sake, but Lorelai always explained that such a formality had never mattered to her. "It didn't matter to me when I was pregnant with Rory. And we already live together, isn't that enough? This baby will have two parents to love it and teach it."

At last, Lorelai's water broke. She was a tad early, but Luke was ready for anything. He drove her to Hartford Memorial Hospital, calling Rory on the way and ordering her to return from Yale.

After Lorelai was administered, Luke waited many hours. Rory showed up in plenty of time and held his hand as he nervously bounced in his seat and continuously glanced at the clock. As day passed into night, and then the wee hours of the morning, no one came. At last, a doctor approached the pair. "Lorelai is about ready to start pushing. Would you like to be there for the delivery?"

Luke and Rory followed him into Lorelai's room. Flanking her, each loved one held her hand as she screamed and wailed and finally pushed the baby out. The effort was great, and Luke was distressed to see that Lorelai was taking quite a bit of time to recover. Her vitals were growing weaker, and at one point, the doctors kicked Luke and Rory out into the hallway. When the doctors came to report progress, the diagnosis was bleak:

"Lorelai has lost a lot of blood, and brain activity is growing increasingly erratic. Her chances of living... are up in the air."

Luke and Rory were let back in to see Lorelai. The new mother was nursing her and Luke's infant son, but her strength and voice were weak. She looked resigned.

"I think I'm dying," she told her daughter and her lover. Luke burst into tears as his world began to spin like a top in reverse. He clutched at Lorelai's hand and bent over her, sobbing.

And indeed, a priest was soon brought in to deliver the Last Rites. Lorelai suddenly became inspired, despite her fading state.

"Father... marry us." And she gestured to Luke.

The priest officiated, and Luke and Lorelai sealed it with a kiss. Rory agreed to serve as a witness. Lorelai pressed her lips to her baby's temple. "Listen to your daddy." Then, she kissed Luke deeply one last time. "I love you," she whispered through her tears.

Rory was inconsolable as she and Lorelai said what was likely farewell. And then, the Diner, college student and wailing baby were ushered away.

The sun was just beginning to rise when Luke was sadly informed that his bride of only a few hours and the mother of his only child was dead.

* * *

The funeral was held in torrential rain, and the whole of Stars Hollow had gathered to say goodbye. Emily and Richard Gilmore were also present, as well as a shell-shocked Christopher Hayden. Rory's biological father offered to take his first-born daughter in, but Rory gently declined. She would be in college for another two, almost three years, and besides... "My place is here," she had told him. She was grown, an adult; it was not required for her to be in custody with her father.

Luke threw himself into his work at the Diner to avoid grieving for his beloved Lorelai as much as possible. He also devoted himself to raising their son, Luke Danes Jr. Rory stayed with him at the Diner on breaks, and assisted in the child rearing. Luke thought it sweet, but unnecessary.

One winter's night, he and Rory were in the loft. Rory was placing little Jr. in his bassinet and rocking him to sleep with a lullaby. _"Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little baby..."_

Luke Jr. giggled and reached for her, likely thinking that Rory was his mother. Luke tried not to tear up at the sight. He should be grateful that Rory was so giving and did not seem to drown in her own pain of what had happened to her mom.

Once the baby was asleep, Rory poured a pot of coffee and brought it to Luke. He accepted it quietly. "You know, you don't have to stay. Not that I don't love having you here, I do! It's just... you don't have to stay."

Rory gazed at him tenderly and knelt at the foot of his armchair. "I _want_ to stay. He's my little brother. Half-brother, but still. You deserve to be happy, Luke. And you're grieving. If I leave... how do I know something won't happen to you?"

Deep down, Luke knew Rory was right.


	4. Chapter 4: Prodigal Daughter Returns

**Chapter 4: Prodigal Daughter Returns**

It was about a year later. Rory was about to leave for her junior year at Yale, but was anxious about Luke having to raise little Jr. all by himself until she got back. Luke had tried to assure her they would be fine; that there would be no surprises.

Man, did fate really love to mock him.

One day, a preteen of about 12 years old had arrived in the diner and told Luke that she needed his help completing a science project. Luke helped where he could, though he didn't understand the whole scope of the experiment. The girl, whose name was April, even invited him to see the completed work at her middle school's science fair.

What Luke saw when he got there was a completed test for paternity that confirmed him, Luke, as April's father. She had been born to an old fling of his, Anna Nardini. Dismayed that Anna had kept their daughter from him, and learning to love the young girl, Luke fought for custody and won. April moved into the loft above the Diner. When Rory would come home from school - now pretty much adopted in all but name by the closest father figure she had ever known - the small apartment could get pretty crowded.

* * *

Rory was feeling jealous. Jealous of the young tweenybopper who was now taking up all of Luke's time. And also feeling out of place. Did she really belong here? And a part of her was dismayed to wonder if she did. But Luke had two children of his own now. What was she, Rory, to him? The daughter of the mother who had brought him his second-born? Rory didn't share his blood. He should not feel any obligation to her. Besides, hadn't Luke once said that she didn't have to stay?

One evening, when Rory saw Luke give his daughter something innocuous as pie, the dam broke. Luke had only ever given _Rory_ pie after closing time. Rory fled from the Diner in tears, Luke chasing after her. He caught up with her at the Gazebo.

"I'll leave right now!" Rory wept. "You were right - I don't have to stay! You have your pretty new daughter now; you don't need me anymore!"

Luke's eyes filled with tears at the possibility that he had made Rory feel this way. He took her in his arms and began to sooth her with gentle sways. "I'll always need you, Rory. You were my first... child." He felt Rory start to blubber against him all over again. "And I don't think your mother would ever forgive me if I didn't look after you. Will you stay? For me? I love you just as much as I did your mom - she was _everything_ to me!"

Rory hiccuped and nodded. "I'll stay."

"I love you, Rory."

"I love you too... Daddy."


End file.
